Day 31 - Project 365

Today being the 31st day of my project and also the first of 12 milestones. I wanted to push the envelope a little bit and incorporate several elements into one image. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do. Whilst sitting in the bathroom, thinking as I usually do, a lightbulb went off in my head. A lightbulb burning up over someones head, signifying there thinking too hard. My friend Jennifer had said that same phrase earlier and the title stuck. This was the largest setup, most layers, and largest file size in the 31 days of the project. I had every piece of equipment out including my bedroom lamp. All together the image was 8 different elements all photographed separately. Best part (sarcasm)… I did it nearly all by myself, from start to finish.

It all started with a trip to CVS to pick up lightbulbs and red poster board. Now, you'd think this would be as easy as getting in the car and driving to the store. Shawn was leaving to take Rylan (his son) to get ice cream. Lucky for me, we were leaving at the same time becuase, right as I was about to pull out I noticed that I had left my electrical case right behind the car. Shawn was seconds away from pulling out and involuntarily murdering my case. I quickly jumped out of the truck and grabbed it, saving it from certain death.

For some reason I had the feeling that this was just the beginning of the BS. Traffic was hell and what normally takes me 3 minutes took me nearly 10. CVS had the most piss poor poster board selection. They didn't even have red! I was not looking forward to driving down to Walgreens but you do what you have to! I hop back in the truck only for the gas light to go on. Now I need to get gas in the truck on top of driving 3 more miles to Walgreens. The truck is a pain in the ass as you need a key to open the gas cap. I only had cash on me so I had to walk in to the station to pay. Luckily, Walgreens had a very organized and well stocked poster board section. I grabbed one sheet and then grabbed a 4 pack of 75 watt generic lightbulbs. I got up the counter and handed the poster board to the cashier. My mood was less then desirable and I swore to myself if she bends my board I'm going to flip. At the last second I decide that it might be a good idea to purchase two boards and tape them together for a larger backdrop (Good Idea!!) The cashier doesn't bend my boards and I make my way home.

I had already set up 2 Alien Bee 800s with Medium soft boxes at 10:00 and 2:00 and the beauty dish boomed over head. I have yet to use the "sandwich" technique during Project 365 and thought what better day then Milestone 1. Only problem was I set up on my back porch and space wasn't plentiful. I barely had enough room to walk let alone get enough spacing between the lights as to avoid massive lens flare. Luckly I had purchased the Soft box grids last year and that was all I needed to eliminate flar. I was originally going to use shawn for this, but since he was stuffing his face with ice cream I decided to use myself. I was in no mood to use the self timer, so I set up my Macbook with the EOS software tethered directly to lightroom using the watched folder feature. I snapped a few shots and then messed with the settings until I found a look I liked. I then made the setting a preset and applied it to all incoming images. This way every picture that I took would be imported into lightroom with the settings already tweaked. This gave me the ability to know right away wether that image was a keeper or not. I used my Magic mouse to trigger the camera. I would have to look up, cross my eyes, wrinkle my forehead and snap the shot. The light is crazy bright as it is but cross your eyes and look up at it and its like looking at the sun. After around 87 attempts I finally got a face that I liked that was also in the frame, With no one around to say "a little to the left," or "a little to the bottom!", it was very difficult to know wether I was in frame enough. I only had an inch of room on either side before my head would be off the backdrop. It wasn't easy but than again that proof was in the 87 attempts!

From this point I had element one finished and a small but nagging headache from the lights. Next was the burning lightbulb. I had done this a few years back and nearly mastered it. I figured doing it again would be easy. Um… NO! Last time I used speed lights at very low power levels. Speed lights unlike Alien Bees recycle quicker with lower power settings. Alien Bee's actually take longer to recycle at lower power levels. Last time I setup the shot then turned all the lights off and set the camera for a long exposure. I then blindly plugged in the light and hit the flash trigger a bunch of times. This gave me the fire and the smoke in sharp focus. I couldn't do this today so I was essentially starting from scratch.

I had borrowed my room lamp and nearly took it apart. I clamped the top half to a C-stand arm and positioned it in frame. I only had 4 lightbulbs so that meant 4 chances to get it right. To get the first shot in the bulb series you must break the glass on the bulb while being careful not to break the filament. The higher the wattage the thicker the filament and the more abuse it can take. But with higher wattage comes brighter burns and requires higher aperture. I chose 75 watts as it was in the middle and would yeild the best results. 4 chances to get this right… here we go. I put the light bulb in a plastic bag and tap it with a buck knife. The damn thing shatters and the knife falls right through the filament. Oh well, I now have 3 chances, should be enough. I put the bulb in the bag and…. 2 chances should be enough, right? Well, good thing Walgreens is open 24hours because I thought I would be making another trip. However, Attempt number 3 was a success! I screw the bulb into the socket, but not before checking that the switch was off as I hate getting electrocuted. Since I almost always try things before I decide I don't like them its safe to assume that I've been electrocuted a fair number of times to know that its just not for me! The bulb is screwed in, the power is off, the camera is set and focused. Right then, shawn walks outside face-timing with Day 22. I tell him to be careful as I just set everything up. Not more then 10 seconds later he goes in and leans on the Arm holding the lightbulb! "SHAWN! I JUST TOLD YOU NOT TO KNOCK INTO THAT AND WHAT DO YOU DO… YOU LEAN ON IT!" "Oh, uh… um… sorry," he then walks away. Sometimes I think I'm being tested.

Well, I reposition and refocus the light. Everything is ready to go. Hand on shutter and my dear old mums hand on the power switch, I count back 3…2….1 and lights flicker and the bulb burns out. The camera was on high speed and out of 5 frames fired only the first is lit. The only drawback to those Alien Bees! I have one more lightbulb left, I successfully break it and reset the set. We try again, this time getting a much better exposure. However, the 1/250 shutter speed just isn't quick enough to freeze the smoke. It's slightly blurred and just not acceptable. I ask mother dearest to use her nasty smoking habit for some good. She holds it vertical and I snap away getting much sharper smoke as the cigaret burns slower, thus giving smoke that is easier to capture at 1/250. The smoke was good but not thick enough. I decide that paper would give me better smoke and clamp a piece onto the C-stand and light it on fire. Still not good enough. I wanted flames and smoke so using knowledge gained as a teenager, I looked around for some sort of accelerant. I didn't have to look more than 5 feet! There on the table was a can of 3M spray glue. Oh yes, now thats flammable. I spray a bit on another piece of paper and "whala!" FIRE! Now, this was what I was looking for. When the fire went out the smoke was even better.

I now had all the elements and was ready to edit. Once in Photoshop I quickly realized that given the chance to do it again I would photograph all elements on black and use a blending mode to knock the background out. The smoke and fire were both shot on black and blending was a breeze. I put all elements together, inserted catchy title and hid Day 31 in the image. After 5 minutes of saving, Photoshop tells me that the file is over 2 gigs and some tiff readers may not read it. Oh well, the final image is about 30 megapixel and approx. 2.4 gigs. Unfortunately I notice a few mistakes in masking and dread having to re save. Being a perfectionist, I can't leave it like it is and go back in. After another 5 min save I'm ready to upload. With 5 minutes till midnight, I have no time to spare. Internet, PLEASE don't quit on me! Everything worked out and the image looks great.

I'm off to clean up the massive mess of gear I left outside. Ugh! this is going to suck. - Michael

Lighting (more elaborate lighting diagram to come)

Headshot:

AB800 Beauty Dish boomed front and center approx. 2 feet from my head @ 1/8 power
AB800 Med gridded Soft Box 10:00 @ 1/4 power
AB800 Med gridded Soft Box 2:00 @ 1/4 power.

Lightbulb:

AB800 Beauty Dish boomed behind lightbulb illuminating backdrop @ 1/4 power.
AB800 Med gridded Soft Box 10:00 @ 1/4 power
AB800 Med gridded Soft Box 2:00 @ 1/4 power.

Smoke:

AB800 Med gridded Soft Box 10:00 @ 1/4 power
AB800 Med gridded Soft Box 2:00 @ 1/4 power.

Fire:

No lights

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